Portland — the darling of urban planners
— is bursting at the seams, and the growth is forcing
policy-makers to expand the region’s prized urban growth
boundary. Metro, the agency responsible for keeping development
within the boundary, already added an unprecedented 18,600 acres
for residential and industrial use last year. But the agency says
it needs another 2,700 acres for industrial use in the next 20
years.
Now, Metro is studying 68,300 rural acres to find
the needed industrial space. The study includes 9,700 acres that
Metro has refused to look at in the past because the land is rated
as “exclusive farm-use land,” according to
Metro’s Lydia Neill, who is overseeing the expansion. Neill
says good farmland can also make good industrial land: flat areas,
not fragmented by streams or other natural features, and with
highway access.
But several nearby towns — including
Wilsonville, Tualatin and Lake Oswego — don’t want
industry to creep into surrounding rural areas. Wilsonville Mayor
Charlotte Lehan says Metro’s criteria-driven approach for
“cheap, flat land next to the freeway” is “a way
to avoid taking a look at the harder decision, which is: Do we want
to allow urban development to continue down the (Willamette)
Valley?”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Urban planners look to farmland to feed industrial growth.
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